Iowa derailment spilled ethanol in Mississippi River

Feb 5 (Reuters) - Three cars that derailed from a freight
train north of Dubuque, Iowa, were lying on the frozen
Mississippi River on Thursday, one of them having spilled some
ethanol fuel, Canadian Pacific (CP) railway said.

Thirteen cars and two engines remain off the tracks after
the derailment on Wednesday, with two put back on the tracks,
the company said in a statement. All fires in the cars have
burned out, it said.

The company said it wasn't sure how much ethanol had leaked.
A spokesman for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources said
state officials are not sure if ethanol is leaking from the car.

"We take our commitment to the environment very seriously,
and are closely monitoring the impact at the site as well as
downstream to determine what remediation will be needed," the
company statement said.

The company said it is working closely the Iowa Department
of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish & Wildlife, and the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency in monitoring efforts.

"We have established 40 separate monitoring sites at 1-mile
increments for 10 miles down the river (originally communicated
as 10 sites total) downriver that will be able to detect the
presence of ethanol in the water, as well as the level of
dissolved oxygen," the statement said.
(Reporting by Kevin Murphy in Kansas City; Editing by Fiona
Ortiz and Sandra Maler)